Tradition Comes Third

Wasting Away

Author's Note: Had so much fun at Wattcon. I learned a lot about story writing and editing. I'm putting serious thought into completely editing Family Comes First and try to see if I can get it published :)

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 I stayed curled up in bed and falling into pockets of sleep. I would wake up, and reach out for Ava. I was expecting to pull her warmth toward me, and nuzzle my face into her long hair. When I felt the empty half of the bed, my heart would sink in my chest.

No one came into my room. I watched the sunrise through the bars on the window, and the room filled with light. Throughout the day, I could hear Mom and Leah moving around the house. I stayed curled up in the blankets with the remaining bits of Ava's scent. Her dry blood was still on my skin, and was flaking off

I listened as Dad and Jared came back into the house. There was a knock on my door, and I pulled the blankets up over my head.

"Hunter," Mom's voice said. "You should come down for dinner."

"I'm not hungry," I said.

"Okay," she said. "If you get hungry come down. There's plenty of food."

I listened to her walk down the stairs. I took in a deep breath, and tossed the blankets off. I used the opportunity of them busy eating to go to the bathroom. I dragged my feet down the hall. I looked in the mirror to see more of Ava's blood splattered across my face. I turned on the tap and scrubbed the blood off. Once my face was cleaned, I could see that my skin was pale and my eyes were swollen from crying. I washed the blood off of my hands before retreating back to my room.

I flopped back onto the bed before I heard a faint knock on the door. The door opened, and I sat up on the edge of the bed. Mom walked in with a plate of food. Her eye was dark and swollen. Dad came in behind her and leaned against the doorframe. His arms were crossed over his chest. Mom sat down on the bed beside me. Dad didn't trust the two of us alone.

"You should really eat," Mom said, placing the plate on my lap. "You haven't had anything to eat all day."

"I'm really not hungry," I said.

"I know you're upset about Ava."

She grabbed my hand and gave me a sad smile. They were unspoken words that we did not say out loud.

"You'll feel better soon," Dad told me. "I'm going out tomorrow to get you another girl."

"I don't want another girl," I said. "I want Ava."

Mom squeezed my hand, and I set the plate down on the nightstand.

"This girl will be better," he said. "Ava was a mistake."

"Don't say that," I snapped. "I love her."

"Julie, let's go," he said. "We'll leave Hunter to sulk."

Mom put her arm around me, and kissed my cheek.

"I love you," she whispered. "I promise."

Mom got up off of the bed, and walked out. Dad shuffled his way into the hallway and was sliding his foot across the hardwood floor. I looked over at the plate of food. I pushed the meat to the side. Ava was right. We should have never started eating the meat. Dad was never going to trust me again. He was going to lock me in here with some random girl for the rest of my life.

I ate the carrots and broccoli off of the plate before rolling back into bed. Images of Ava flooded my mind as I tried to fall asleep.

--

I stayed in my room all day. I heard an engine start, and I ran over to the window. The truck was pulling out of the driveway, and I knew he was going to kidnap a girl. I could only hope that he gets caught while he is in the city.

It hit me that he was gone.

Jared was the only one here.

I ran down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Mom was at the sink, washing dishes. Leah was sitting at the table, and mixing a bowl of what looks like dough.

"Hunter, it's good to see you up," Mom said.

I walked past her and grabbed the door. I yanked on it, but the knob didn't turn. I continued to pull on the door, but it didn't budge.

"What are you doing?" Mom asked.

"Where's Jared?" I asked.

I cut across the house and ran to the front door. I grabbed the doorknob and it was locked.

"He's outside," Leah said. "And your Dad left."

"I heard," I said. "We need to get out."

"Hunter, sit down," Mom said.

I came back into the kitchen. Mom was wiping her hands on a towel. She pulled the chair out from across Leah.

"You're exhausted," Mom said. "Please just sit down and have some breakfast."

"Mom, Dad is gone. This is the time to leave," I said.

"Everything is locked," she said, and then pointed to the chair. "Sit."

I let out a deep breath, and sat down on the chair. I watched Mom put two pieces of bread into the toaster.

"I want to go out and find Ava," I said. "I want to bury her."

"They didn't bury her?" Leah asked.

"No."

"We're locked in, and we need to be smart about this," Mom said. "We're going to get out of here, but we need a good plan. We can't get punished again, especially Leah."

Leah put her hand on her belly, and squeezed her eyes shut.

"It'll be any day now," she said.

I looked at Leah shift her weight in her seat. When Ava and I first met Leah, we didn't know she was pregnant until she told us. Now she was soon going to give birth. I turned in my chair to see Mom spreading butter on the toast.

"How long ago did Dad get out of jail?" I asked.

"Almost four months ago," she said.

My heart sank when she said that. I thought it was only a month or so. Not having the calender anywhere and that made the days melt together. The drugs they sedated us with and my head made a lot of the days foggy.

Ava had to spend the last four months of her life being tortured in this house.

Mom set the toast down in front of me and sat down, Leah propped her glasses on the top of her head and then wiped a single tear off her cheek.

"What's stopping them from killing us?" she asked.

"I don't know," Mom said. "We all have to be careful not to upset them. Your father has changed so much."

"I want to go to my room," I said pushing myself away from the table.

Mom put her hand on my arm and stopped me.

"Eat your toast," she said. "You're wasting away up there. It's not healthy."

"You know you have to eat," Leah said. "You'll be too weak to run away."

I sat back at the table. Their eyes were staring at me as I dug into the toast. I struggled to swallow against the lump in my throat that formed when I watched Dad shoot Ava. After I finished, Mom took the plate and brought it over to the sink. I hurried upstairs and into my room. I wrapped myself up in the blankets.

I stayed in bed for the rest of the day. Mom knocked on the door telling me to come down for dinner. I told her I wasn't hungry, and she didn't push it. I managed to keep down the toast, but I didn't want to be forced to eat the meat.

I had drifted off to sleep, and woke up when I heard someone banging on my door.

"What?" I groaned.

"Get up," Jared said. "Your new girl is downstairs."